Syrian Civil war
2-Mar-2017: Syrian Army recaptures Palmyra
The Syrian army had recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra from Islamic State for the second time in a year, with help from allied forces and Russian warplanes.
Islamic State seized Palmyra in a surprise advance in December, after having been driven out eight months before. With backing from the Syrian and Russian air forces, units of armed forces recaptured the city of Palmyra, in cooperation with the allies.
The army and Iranian-backed militia advanced inside Palmyra on Thursday as Islamic State withdrew completely. Islamic State militants retreated to areas in the east. Government forces took control of swathes of Palmyra and conducted combing operations to clear mines on Thursday.
During Islamic State’s first occupation which ended in March last year, the ultra-hardline jihadist group destroyed some of Palmyra’s priceless archaeological heritage. It is believed to have razed other parts of the historical ruins after regaining control in December.
The Syrian army is also fighting Islamic State east of Aleppo city, where it is pushing to reach the Euphrates river, and in the city of Deir al-Zor, where it controls an enclave besieged by the militants.
Islamic State is on the back foot in Syria after losing territory in the north to an alliance of U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led militias, and to Turkey-backed Syrian rebel groups.
Government and opposition delegations are attending U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Geneva, where the government’s chief negotiator hailed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for keeping his promise to retake Palmyra.
The Syrian opposition however declined to congratulate Assad on capturing Palmyra and suggested the sight of the city changing hands again was risible.
1-Mar-2017: All parties committed war crimes in Aleppo - UN
A UN-established commission has issued a damning report on human rights violations in Syria’s war-ravaged Aleppo, accusing both sides to the conflict of committing war crimes.
The commission gathered evidence to confirm witness accounts that the Syrian and Russian governments used prohibited cluster munitions on civilians in rebel-held eastern Aleppo, suggesting the deliberate destruction of hospitals with repeated airstrikes, among other rights violations.
The report looked at violations committed last year between July 21, when the rebel-held part of Aleppo was besieged, and Dec. 22, when Syrian troops and allied forces assumed full control of the city. In perhaps the most damning discovery the commission said that evacuations were a military tactic — not a humanitarian effort.
The report concludes that the six-month siege of the city, “was a stage of unrelenting violence.” It notes that civilians from both sides were left trapped in the eastern part of Aleppo without adequate food or medical supplies as Syrian and Russian forces conducted daily air strikes that killed hundreds and decimated hospitals, schools and markets. The situation was so severe that as civilians tried to flee they were violently forced to stay by armed groups and used as human shields. In the western part of the city, rebel groups would often fire indiscriminately killing and injuring dozens — including women and children.
By early September, pro-Government forces had renewed and secured the siege. Faced with a protracted humanitarian catastrophe, confined armed groups began a concerted campaign of shelling western Aleppo neighborhoods over the next three months.
Attacks were predominantly characterized by indiscriminate, indirect artillery fire into dense urban terrain, often with no apparent legitimate military objective, the effect of which terrorized the inhabitants of western Aleppo city.
Among the commission’s findings is that Russian and Syrian warplanes dropped unguided munitions, known as “dumb bombs,” and that the Syrian government intentionally carried out airstrikes on a humanitarian convoy in the rural outskirts of western Aleppo last September.
The report observed that by using air-delivered munitions with the knowledge that humanitarian workers were operating in the location, Syrian forces committed the war crimes of deliberately attacking humanitarian relief personnel, denial of humanitarian aid, and attacking civilians.
The northern Syrian city of Aleppo was caught in a brutal four-year deadlock. It was a key battleground in the war between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and rebels who want to overthrow him. In November, Syrian government forces launched a renewed assault, and rapidly retook almost all of the opposition-held east. By mid-December they had pushed the rebels into just a few neighbourhoods. Tens of thousands of civilians fled those districts. The UN said it had received allegations that hundreds of men had gone missing since crossing into government-controlled areas – and that rebels prevented some civilians from leaving.
International Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN)
6-Mar-2017: 13th Executive Committee Meeting of the International Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN).
The Ministry of Power, Government of India is hosting the 13th Executive Committee Meeting of the International Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN) at POWERGRID Corporate Center, Gurugram. This is the first ever Executive Committee Meeting of ISGAN being held in India and would have multiple sessions on 6th, 7th and 9th March, 2017.
Smart Grid implementation in India would get a boost from deliverables obtained through decisions and actions taken in 13th ISGAN ExCo Meeting as ISGAN aims to improve the understanding of smart grid technologies, practices and promote adoption of related enabling government policies. The dynamic knowledge sharing, technical assistance and project coordination and periodic ISGAN reports on progress and projects being undertaken in the field of Smart Grids across the world would also be helpful in suitable deployment of Smart Grid technologies in India.
ISGAN is an agreement under International Energy Agency (IEA) and consists of representatives from 25 countries across the globe. India is one of the founding Member of ISGAN and Joint Secretary (Distribution), Ministry of Power, is the member representative of India. ISGAN creates a mechanism for multilateral government-to-government collaboration to advance the development and deployment of smarter electric grid technologies, practices and systems.
A total of 36 representatives from 18 countries namely Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, Russia, South Africa, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, US and UAE are participating in this event.
Intellectual Property Index(IP Index)
9-Feb-2017: India ranks 43rd out of 45 nations in 2017 International Intellectual Property Index.
In its 5th Annual International Intellectual Property Index released by US Chambers of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC), India is ranked very poor at 43rd position out of 45 countries.
The 2017 International Intellectual Property Index titled ‘The Roots of Innovation’ revealed that though India showed slight improvement its performance, still it continued to lag behind the rest of the world in IP protections. Out of a total of 35 points, India could score only 8.75, even below the average score of 15.39.The Index has been topped by United States with a score of 32.6.
This is for the fifth consecutive year that India has been ranked at the bottom in the index. It was ranked last or next-to-last in the previous four years. Last year, India was placed 37 out of 38 countries and scored a low 7.0 out of maximum 30 points.
The report said that though India made some increment this year, but the Indian government has to do a lot more to build up a positive impression of its IPR policy with adequate legislative reforms that innovators require.
The report stated that the slight improvement in India’s overall scores is mainly because of the inclusion of five new indicators in the index on which India performed very strong.
According to the report, India scored little better than before due to the newly adopted National IP Policy that recognises several key gaps, including the need for a stronger enforcement of the current IP rights.
However the policy does not address the challenges and uncertainties rights-holders face when it comes to protecting their patent rights, modernising existing copyright laws or introducing international best practices and new sector specific IP rights such as regulatory data protection.
Besides, India’s anemic IPR Policy, the report cited challenges with the scope of patentability for computer-implemented inventions, Section 3(D) of the Indian Patent Act, and the recent High Court of Delhi decision to permit photocopying of copyrighted material for educational purposes.
Besides, India, Pakistan ranked at 44 position with 8.37 score which was added in 2016 in the index along with Venezuela. China scored 14.83 points.
This year seven new countries have been added to the Index. They include Egypt, Hungary, Kenya, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Spain.
According to the report, the 45 countries analyzed in the index represent nearly 90% of the global economic output.